


Secrets

by Illiteracy_is_for_woozles



Series: The Future Is History [2]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon Divergence - Thor (2011), Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Family Secrets, Frigga (Marvel) Knows All, Gen, Jotunn Loki (Marvel), Jotunn | Frost Giant, Loki gets to be happy for once, Mother-Son Relationship, Odin (Marvel)'s A+ Parenting, Retcon Timeline, Secrets, Self-Denial, Self-Discovery, Self-Doubt, Self-Esteem Issues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-05
Updated: 2019-02-05
Packaged: 2019-10-22 21:10:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,326
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17670158
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Illiteracy_is_for_woozles/pseuds/Illiteracy_is_for_woozles
Summary: What could've happened if Loki had decided to leave Asgard instead of trying to prove himself to Odin?Set when Loki confronts Odin about the whole Jotun thing in Thor (2011)(Not necessary to read for the series, but helpful, and nice to read whether or not you read the series at all)





	Secrets

**Author's Note:**

> I am a salty person. Odin sucks and I always wished Loki would've realized that Odin would never be happy with him and that he was an abusive sack of diapers.  
> So yeah, here's my retcon.

Loki stood before the Casket, gazing into the swirling blue.

He was wrong. He had to be.

He was wrong or he was cursed or- He didn't know. He didn't know anything anymore. His thoughts were as formless as the shapes in the Casket's glow.

All but one.

The confused prince slowly reached out and laid hold of the artifact, lifting it from its pedestal. As he did so, his skin became a shade of blue that started in his fingertips and spread up his hands and arms, into his sleeves and up his arms to his neck. He could feel the coolness reach his face and continue to spread through the rest of him. It felt… comfortable. _Right_.

“Stop!” Odin's voice echoed off the vault's walls.

Loki turned, Casket still in his hands, to see Odin standing in the door with a look of… was that fear on his face? No, Loki was just projecting his own emotions on someone else; the All-Father feared nothing.

“Am I cursed?” The young man’s voice was hoarse and grating to his own ears and his fingers tightened around the handles as Odin’s face softened in pity. Loki didn’t _need_ his pity.

“No.” His voice was flat, only showing the kind of emotion you would for a stray dog you might find that was dying. “Put the Casket down.”

Loki shook his head but obeyed, missing the warmth that the chill of the artifact gave him as soon as it left his hands.

“What am I?”

“You’re my son.” Odin answered a little _too_ fast for that to be a natural response.

“What more than that?”

Odin refused to meet his eyes and Loki… Loki knew. He didn’t need to ask any more questions, but he wanted to know.

“The Casket wasn’t the only thing you took from Jotunheim that day, was it?”

The All-Father was silent a few more moments, but Loki stared him down in his desperation for answers.

“No.” Odin must’ve seen him struggling because he continued. “In the aftermath of the battle, I went into the Temple and I found a baby.”

Loki’s jaw ticked.

“Small for a giant’s offspring; abandoned, suffering, left to die. Laufey’s son.”

 _No, no, no, no, no._ An endless litany of _no_ and _Laufey’s son_ paraded through his mind.

“Laufey’s son?” Loki shook the confusion and steadied his breathing as best he could. He looked Odin straight in the eye. “ _Why?_ You were _knee-deep_ in Jotun blood. Why would you take me?”

Odin held his gaze.

“You were an innocent child.”

The _were_ a plain dig, Loki ignored it in favor of asking the question again.

“You took me for a purpose, what was it?” He felt his chest seizing and his heart _ached_ and his eyes began to _burn_ the longer Odin was silent. “Tell me!”

“I thought we could unite our kingdoms one day, bring about an alliance, bring about a permanent peace.” He paused, glancing to and then away from Loki again. “Through you. But those plans no longer matter.”

Loki huffed out a bitter laugh.

“So I am no more than another stolen relic, locked up here until you might have use of me.”

Odin said something, but Loki was too angry and confused to listen.

“You could have told me what I was from the beginning.” He should have bit his tongue, but he didn’t. “Why didn’t you?”

“You are my son. My blood.” This almost made Loki laugh. “I wanted only to protect you from the truth.”

Loki stumbled back as if he’d been slapped.

“Because I’m the monster parents tell their children about at night?” Memories of all the stories the servants had told him and Thor flashed before his eyes and he felt sick.

“Don’t,” Odin warns.

“It all makes sense now,” Loki remarks bitterly. “Why you favored Thor all these years.”

“Listen to me.”

Loki kept going, spouting whatever his mind provided in his anger and striding towards the exit as his “father” called for him.

He only stopped when he heard the crash.

  
  


Odin was fine. He’d just put off the Odinsleep for too long.

As soon as the healers had pronounced him stable, Loki had run off to his rooms to think.

He couldn’t stay here. It wasn’t safe. _He_ wasn’t safe.

He slid to the floor with his back to the end of his bed and held his head in his hands.

_What am I going to do?_

He could prove himself to Odin somehow. But no, nothing he could ever do would be good enough for that man.

_I can’t stay here. If anyone finds out, they’ll kill me, and now that Odin knows I know, he won’t keep it a secret any longer._

Someone lightly rapped on his door.

“Loki, darling, may I come in?”

His throat tightened at his mother’s voice, fear seizing his vocal chords and drying his mouth.

 _Keep it together. Of course she would already know_.

“Yes.”

She entered, closing it again behind her.

“Are you alright?” Frigga sat on the bed next to where he was on the floor, so he leaned his head against her knee out of childish habit.

“I- I don’t know.”

She lifted his chin and studied him in that way only loving mothers can do, her face softening when she found what she was looking for.

“Oh, Loki, I’m so sorry.” She pulled her son into a hug. “I asked him to be honest with you from the beginning. There should be no secrets in a family.”

“So why did he lie?”

She sighed and shook her head, running a hand through Loki’s hair like he was still a little boy.

“He told me that he kept the truth from you so that you would never feel different, but I’m not so sure.”

Loki pulled away and was silent for a moment as he thought.

“Did Thor know?”

“No, he did not. And Odin forbid me from telling him the same as you.”

Loki nodded.

“I can’t stay here, I hope you understand.”

Frigga closed her eyes and swallowed.

“I do.” She stood and pulled Loki’s old travel pack from a cupboard.

Loki joined her in packing, collecting only what would be necessary. He made sure he had a few books with maps and information regarding the different peoples and planets in the universe.

When they finished, Loki went to lift the pack over his shoulder, but his mother stopped him halfway.

“Loki, I need you to listen to me very carefully.” She let go of the strap and held him by the chin with both hands. “Firstly, you are in every way my son and we, Thor and I, are your family. You must know that.”

Loki tried to look away, but his mother held firm.

“Secondly, you know that I am not allowed to tell you anything concerning my vision for fear of the consequences.”

Loki’s eyes grew wide.

“But I will tell you this: After you have done your soul-searching and discovered what you need to about yourself, you need to patch things up with your brother.” She brushed a stray lock of hair from his eyes. “There is more than just Asgard at stake if you do not.”

He nodded and leaned in to kiss her cheek.

“Goodbye, mother.”

  
  


**_A few years later,_ ** **Avengers Compound**

Loki appeared at the front gate and rang the buzzer, adjusting the pack over his shoulder. He sensed his brother was inside, even if he couldn’t see him.

After a few minutes, the gate opened and Thor flew out of the window of one of the buildings and landed a few feet in front of the trickster.

The thunderer stood silent with his mouth hanging slightly opened. His eyes were slightly wet.

Loki glanced to his feet and back up again.

“Hello, brother.”

Thor dropped his hammer on the ground and engulfed him in a hug, laughing.

**Author's Note:**

> Lemme know what you think.


End file.
